SUSE Security

[crito]

Hi. I'm a newbie to Linux, everything is fine so far, however I do have one concern.
I'm worried about keyloggers and troj horses when I make financial transactions. With Windows I used Norton Antivirus and WebRoot Spysweeper to notify me on the occasions that I picked up these little nasties, I'm wondering if there are any similar measures I can take w/Linux so I can sleep at night w/out fretting that my personal info/credit card numbers/bank account login/etc. hasn't been compromised.
I'm determined to make the transition away from Microsoft, and pretty much everything else I need to do I can do w/SUSE. But when I do online banking or buy something from Amazon or whatever, I switch back to Windows. I understand that Windows is more succeptable (sp?) to that kind of thing, but at least I feel I can control my environment somewhat (in my state of newbie-ness). Any suggestions would be much appreciated.
thanks,
michael

[eraker]

You can install rootkit hunter (rkhunter) probably through Yast or Smart, and then you can run it as root via the command,
rkhunter --checkall

[Thrillhouse]

Hi. I'm a newbie to Linux, everything is fine so far, however I do have one concern.
I'm worried about keyloggers and troj horses when I make financial transactions. With Windows I used Norton Antivirus and WebRoot Spysweeper to notify me on the occasions that I picked up these little nasties, I'm wondering if there are any similar measures I can take w/Linux so I can sleep at night w/out fretting that my personal info/credit card numbers/bank account login/etc. hasn't been compromised.
I'm determined to make the transition away from Microsoft, and pretty much everything else I need to do I can do w/SUSE. But when I do online banking or buy something from Amazon or whatever, I switch back to Windows. I understand that Windows is more succeptable (sp?) to that kind of thing, but at least I feel I can control my environment somewhat (in my state of newbie-ness). Any suggestions would be much appreciated.
thanks,
michael

Security is not as much of an issue on Linux as it is on Windows. Your concerns are certainly warranted but the fact is, hackers target Windows machines more than they do Linux machines. If you do your transactions on a secure website like Amazon then you really don't have to worry. In this case, your security depends more on the site you're using than your own machine. That doesn't mean your machine is not completely guarded against attacks. You can install anti-virus software if you'd like, Clam-AV is a popular one but there are certainly others (check out the Linux Security forum). However, a more legitimate concern would be root kits. To combat this, I would suggest installing rkhunter. Beyond that, a good firewall is all you need. There really is no such thing as Spyware or Adware for Linux, yet. I honestly believe that an unprotected Linux box is more secure than a Windows box decked out with Norton, Webroot, Symantec, etc. After all, Norton's anti-virus software is the most hacked software in the world.

EDIT: eraker beat me.

I think a good tip is to configure rkhunter to run daily.

[crito]

Thanks to both, installed and ran rkhunter, feel much better about the whole situation.

Thrillhouse:My biggest concern really is keyloggers. I hear what you're saying about security Linux vs. Windows, but being infected by a keylogger could be a real nightmare.

Anyway, thanks again eraker and Thrillhouse